Improvement in the manufacture of iron and in the apparatus therefor



, 5 Sheets-Shee L WHELPLEY 6L STORER.

Making Iron.

Patented March 22, 1870.

Invalo rs WHELPLEY & STORER.

Making Iron.

No. 101,067. Patented March 22, 1870.

5 Sheets-Sheet 2.v

. 252,11 671,50 rg. i Mdm. 0J wf da 7h47@ 5 sheets-s116813.

, WHELPLEY 6L STORER.

Making -Iron.

Patented March 22, 1870.

5 Sheets-Sheet 4.

wHELPLx-:Y & STORER.

Making Iron.

I No. 101,067.

Patented March 22, 1870.

FM N) am En *KKH 5J@ wf 5 Sheets-Sheet 5.

WHELPLEY & STQRER,

Making Iron.

Patented March 22,1870.

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JAMES DAVENPORT WHELPLEY AND JACOB JONES ,"'lOl-ll i, Oli1 BOSTON,

MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMNT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND IN THE APPARATUS THEREFOR.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part .of the same To all to whom. these presents shall come:

-verzed fuel through the mechanism invented and employed ,by us, in curves, so that the shape of the body or working partshall as nearly as possible approximate to the semi-concave' of an ellipsoid or prolate spheroid, divided lengthwise by a'horif/.ontal plane, which representsy the hearth.

.Description 0 j' the Accompany-ing Dwellings'.

Figure l is a plan.

Figure 2 is a side elevation.

Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical section on line A A.

Figure 4 is a transverse vertical section on linc B l.

Figure 5 is a transverse vertical section on line G C.

ll`igure (i is a horizontal section ou line l) D.

Figure. 7 is an end elevation, showing feed-pipe cntrance.

Toward the tire-place l; the sides and roof are contracted, so as to form `a pear-shaped neck, X, conehiding at thc back wall of the tire-place. This neck is, in transverse section, but from.one-fourth to one-filth,

more or less, of the largest transverse section of the body of the furnace..

F rom two to four square. feet of grate-surface is yfound to be sntiicient for a furnace from eight to eighteen feet in interior length, and pi'tuiortional width. l

The hrarth or sole of the furnace H will be coilstructcd in adaptation to the work which is to be done upon it. lt' iron or steel or other Inetaisfarc simply to be heated or melted, then of tire-sand or bricli or other refractory material. lf cast-iron is to be puddled or boiled, then of cinder or ore, as is customary in other furnaces used for such purpose.

The bottom plat-c is of cast-iron, on which rcst'the cast-iron boshes (l, snrrouiu'led by air-channels N, in theusual manner. We prefer the sloping and curved boshcs, as shown in the drawing, as being, iu our j udgnient, best adapted to this forni ot'furuace; but w; do -notinsist upon this` slope, for boshcs with perpendicular l'a'cc will not lbe objectionable,

.The kind and quantity of work to be done in the furnace will fdctcrmine, as in other furnaces, the heights of 'the tire-bridge and tine-bridge.

The small horizontally-elongated opening P in the back wall of the lire-place, about midway between the grate-bars and the roof, is for the introduction into the furnace of the pulrcrized fu'el which is projected on a blast of air.

comparison of the usual paddling, heating, or roasti:xg-furnace, in which lump or massive fuel alone is burned, with a furnace of the saine-working capacity of our design, will show that in the usual style of furnace the grate-snrface is from ten to iifteeu square feet or moi-cfm' in the proportion of four or tive to one. of thc grate-surface employed by us, and tirelireplacc proportionally deep, thus indicating great consumption of fuel and excessive supply of-air, and cousequent formation of large columns of gas; that, in order to give suiiicicnt room for these gases and pro` ducts of combustion to escape, the sides of the furnace are built up vpcrpeiidicularly, and the roof is a fiattened arch, so that deep angles giving more rooni may result.; that not only must much heat be wasted in these angles, but a large proportion must be useless for work, because the. lines ofheat radiation from the side walls do not fall upon the hearth. l

In this furnace, designed by us for the use of pulverized fuel, lmnp coal, to the depth of aboutthree inches only, is fed through the door upon the gratebars in the usual manner in puddling-furnaces, which, when well ignited, sutiiciently heats the surroundii'ig walls ofthe ture-place. In a furnace of this kind, with from two and a halt to three square feet of grate-sun face, the `lump coal consumed on the ,grate-bars"7 say from twenty to thirty pounds per hour, is simply to heat the iirc-box wherein the jet of pulverized fuel is ignited, and does not serve in any considerable degrec to heat the body of the furnace, 4whereas in a furnace of the usual kind, of the same capacity, from four hundred to tive hundred pouuds-ofl1unp coal, with which all thc work of heating is accomplished, are required in the. same time.

As soon as the walls of the fire-place L become sutiiciently heated, the pulverized fuel is projected ou a ljet or blast of` air 4through the opening P, and over the tiro-bridge K, into the focus ot' heat, as described in our patent-s of March 13, 1866, and March 3l, 1868, and is instantly ignited by the heat radiated from the fuel on the grate and from the curved walls and roof ofthe lire-place, and carried along on the blast, burr ia .the body of the furnace under the roof.

'lhc apparatus which we employ for comniinuting tthc i'ucl and introducing it into the furnace consists of the pulverizer which has already been secured to us by patents No. 36,580, September 30, 1862; No.' l\'o.4,4,990, November S, 1864; No. 48,226, June 13, 1865; No. 49,187, August 1, 1865; No. 50,975, No vemher 14,1665;` No. 59,693, November 13, 1866; and o't' our apparatus for the, delivering grain, ores, &c., into grinding or pnlveriziiig-mills, for which we have made application for a patent of the United States. c v

1t is'a possible and practical thing to introduce t-he fuel previously pulver-ized by a ian-blower, but we prefer the apl'iaratiis which simultaneously pulverizes and delivers the fuel in quantities that can be easily and accurately regulated by simple mechanical devices, thus giving tothe process of stoking or fuel feed an automatic character, governed by machinery.

The use and application of pulver-ized fuel as an auxiliary in the heating of a furnace or the working of iron has been indica-ted in the English patents of Dawes, in 1832; of Banks, in 1840; of Desboissierres, in 1846; of Mouchcl, in 1854; of Mushet, in 1857 of ril-atc, in 1858, and perhaps by some others; butwe Iuse and apply it as the prime agent for heating andl working in the furnace, which they do not do, norin the manner nor by the apparatus designed by-us.

Some of the advantages of using pulverized fuel in the manner designed by us have'been set forth in our patentsabove referred to, and the advantages claimed by us in using the form of furnace above described for the application of pulverized fuel, for the purposes herein indicated, are as follows:

The comparative smallness ot' the grate-surface de termines the use of a much less quantity of massive or lumpfuel than in the usual furnace of equal ea pacity for work. l

The form of the roof and sides 'M M is especially adapted to the combustion of tinely-pulverized coal and gases, being the best for allowing` a full and rapid i expansion ofthe gaseous products of combustion, andl serving to focus the heat upon the column or jet of pulverizcd coal and air, -as it floats through the furnace, thus more-fully insuring complete combustion, and serving to equalize in the most perfect manner the radiation and reflection of heat from the floating burning fuel uponthe hearth.

Because there are no re-entering or projecting angles in the furnace. beyond the tire-bridge, it being. arched from the boshcs upward, there is no escape of heat, except what unavoidably passes out .through the vent or tlue V, and into and through the brick-work.

1t has been fully demonstrated in other furnaces and ovens, that the cu'lvcs of the roof and sides cause the lines of heat radiation to fall fully and evenly upon the hearth or the work thereon, and for our process they are peculiarly adapted, for the reason that they permit the almost complete escape of the floating ashes of the pulverized fuel through theflue V, so thatbut aminimum amount is deposited upon the work, and cause so thorough a reverberation and even distribution ofthe ame and gases that the hearth or work thereon can at will be evenly covered or enveloped with a ca-rbonizing, lneutral, or oxidizing "flame, in direct contact with almost equal heat in every part.

The blast under the grate-bars is furnished by a fan-blower, or other apparatus, from any convenient point. We always prefer the artificial or force blast under the grate-bars to the natural or exhaust blast.

In several competitive trials with pulverized coal made between the usual form of paddling and heatingfurnaces, and the form hereiu'described and shown in the drawings, it has been found: I

First. That'in the form described in the accoi'npa nying drawings, the economy of coal is nearly ity per centum over the other.

Second. That in this furnace and with this process,

the usual loss of iron in paddling or heating in being loxidized or burned is reduced sixty to eighty per centum.

Third. That this form of furnace is more quickly heated with the same amount of fuel, the gainin time..

Sixth.V That the gases generated by the combustion of the float-ing .particles of burning carbon are more thoroughly than in any other furnace brought down uponv the hearth or work, so' .that oxidation, reduction, for carbnrization can be obtained at will.

Seventh. The furnacev with continuous hollow linesnot more expensive to build, and is, owing'to itsy forni, more durable than the other.

Eighft'l 1, The curved lines of t-he hearth malte the'.l working nd manipulation of the furnace-charge more easy.

' Whena reducin or carboniziuwflame is used in the furnace, aV portion of the pililverized fuel will some- I vtimes, esca-pe int-o the smoke-stach and pass upnnconsinned in company with the gases. To remedy this lossof fuel, as well as to prevent the excessive escape of heat and 'mieonsumed gases up the stack, we sometimes adopt t-he device described in A Practical' Treatise on'llletallurgy, by Crookes & Rhrig, pub- `vlished in I1869', vohune'2, page 585, which is to return the unburned carbon `andheated gases passing up the stack through the fire upon the grate, by means of a tan-blower or blast-pipe, or to return them by means i of a pipe into the pulverizer, to be mingled and introduced into the furnace with the pnlvcrizcd fuel.

The two pipes, S S, represented in the drawing, leading from the stack to the pulverizer and fan, for

the return ot' lhot air and unconsumed pulverized fuebA and gases, are accordingly furnished with slide-doors or valves'l T at any convenient point, to regulate their supply. l

We do uotelaimthis asa novelty, the same having been done in other furnaces; but we deem the combination of this improvement with our application of l pulverized fuel a matter of importance in our process,

under certain conditions. A

The flue ash-pit() shown in the drawiug,and which is placedI between the end of the furnace andthe smoke-stack, is not only for the deposition of the ashes oated through the furnace ou the auxiliary blast,but

also is of great advaiitage in preventing, when using a carbonizing or reducing flame in furnace, the escape of smoke' or nnconsumed dust-fuel through the stack. In it, (it being of greater area than the stack itself, sx`t`eet square, more or less,) there is a retardation of 'the velocity of the current of gases carrying the ashes andlnnconsumed fuel on their way to the stack, a'nd an expansion ofthe moving column; consequently the major part of the ashes is deposited therein, andl the .unconsnmed fuel is sniiiciently delayed in its escape toward the stack to become wholly or almost wholly consumed. This combustion of the escaping fuel in -the ashlpit is perfectly assured by the admission of air through small convenient orifices in the sides ofthe pit. 1t is an advantage to supply this auxiliary feed of air through the bushes or through channels in the walls of the furnace, so that it may enter heated in some degree, though this device is not essential, and consequently is not represented in ,the drawing.

It is customary to place a boiler for the utilization A of the waste heat of a furnace by the generation of steam, over the stack, which for this purpose is cfu This furnace, constructed as described, and ot' a suitable size for that purpose, is used by us under or in` connection with boilers as an improvement upon the form of fire-box with brick arches and inclined jainbs,

patented by us in Letters PatentNo. 7 6,280, dated March 31, 1868. In this adaptation and combinzttion, Where only the generation of steam is sought for, the 'furnace with its lire-place w'ill be from one-quarter to one-third the length of the boiler,'more orless, tile flue-bridge I formiufar the lip of au ash-pit, as shown in drawing, such as is usually placed under-boilers, into which the ashes will be precipitated in the course of combustion. l

We consider this an improvement, because we find thatthecombustion of anthracite cu'lm is more coniplete in this apparatus than in any other with which we are acquainted.

We claim- 1. A furnace with hollow or continuously-curved interior lines, (without re-entering angles beyond the fire-bridge, except at the working-docu) in combination with our process for burning pulverized fuel, and the apparatus especially adapted by us therefor, as and for the purposes substantially `as described.

2. The form of furnace described in the above speciication and drawings, in combination with the method of using pulverized fuel, as described iu our patents of March 31, 1868, claim four, and for the better economy thereof, substantially as and for the purposes described.

3. The use of the products of combustion or heated air drawn from the flue or air-chambers or stack beyond the furnace and returned with air through the tire, iu combination with the process of using pulverized fuel,aud the apparatus and furnace, substantially as and for 'the purposes described.

4. The ash-pit and combustion-chamber beyond the furnace, covered or not covered by a steam-boiler, in combination witlr the use ot' pulverizcd fuel in a furnace with hollow interior lilies, substantially as and for the purposes described.

5. 1 he use and application ot' pulverized fuel in a furnace of the kind above described as the prime agent in heating the furnace and iu working the irou,&c.,as and for the purpose 'substantially as described.

(i. 'llie comparatively small fire-box and contracted neck-of the furnace the best designs for a furnace in which lump or massive fuel is to be used simply for the ignition ot' the pulverized fuel, the principal part of the heating being,r done and the character of the flame being determined by the latter, as and for the purpose substantially as described.

7. Burning the fuel wholly or principally u1 the body of the furnace, not in tbe tire-place, suspended in air and gases-over the work or the hearth, and in 4this way obtaining better results than are possible by the bnrniircr of gases alone in the body of the furnace, or by burning lump or massive fuel in the fire-box.

JAMES D. WHELPLEY. JACOB J. STORER. Witnesses:

OHARLEs M. NICKERsoN, Faun. W. LONGLEY. 

